


The Fundamentals of Motorcycle Repair

by themuslimbarbie



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), DCU
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Falling In Love, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 18:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9838517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themuslimbarbie/pseuds/themuslimbarbie
Summary: “It’s just - you’re my best friend. You know that, right?”





	

It should probably be on record that it doesn't start off like this.

At the start, it's different. It's light and it's playful. It's sneaking him vodka when Stein isn't looking and making fun of all the technobabble Ray says. It's playful shoves and childlike bickering.

It’s pure and genuine friendship.

She thinks that shouldn't be that big of a deal, but it is. Because in the beginning, there aren't many things in her life that are pure or genuine anymore. There aren't many people who look at her and don't instinctively see assassin, killer, monster.

But Jax? Jax never once reminds her that she doesn't have to be a killer anymore because, Sara thinks for the first time in a long time, someone doesn't see her as that. He just sees Sara Lance, another person on the ship with him.

It means more to her than he will ever know, she thinks.

 _He_ means more to her than he ever knows.

 

 

 _Sorry about your sister_ , Jax tells her when it’s all said and done. He slides down the wall and sits on the floor beside her. What Rip did wasn’t fair, he adds. He should have told Sara from the get-go. She deserved to know.

Sara considers trying to brush it off and telling him that it doesn’t matter, because it is what it is now and Rip says they can’t change that. But it _does_ matter and she doesn’t even see the point in lying to Jax about it. So she doesn’t say anything.

His dad died, he tells her suddenly.

Her head snaps up at him, but he’s not looking at her.

Jax warned him to be careful, to keep his head down, but it didn’t matter in the end. When he went home, he thought that maybe it would be different than when he left. That his dad would be there. But he wasn’t. It was only his mom. Turns out, his dad’s camp was bombed the following week. He died again. Still. Whatever.

It’s not the same, he knows. He never really knew his dad, not like how Sara knew her sister. But it’s _something_ and it _sucks_ because he really thought that maybe - just _maybe_ \- time would let him get away with this one thing. Would let him have his dad back. But it didn’t and it just really _sucks_.

He tells her this because he thought it might help her, knowing that she isn’t alone. That he’s right there, suffering with her.

It doesn’t help. Not at all.

But the fact that he’s worried about her right now, that with everything he’s feeling right now, he’s focusing on how he doesn’t want her to feel alone? _That_ helps.

 

 

A lot changes after Sara becomes captain. Most notably the amount of spare time she has. Before there were always missions and aberrations that needed to be fixed, but she always had time for herself. Time to train, to relax, to just take a break from everything. But now? Now there’s so much more that has to be done. She has to pilot the ship, _look_ for the time aberrations, watch out for the team, strategize future missions, and so much more.

And it’s not like Sara doesn’t want to do all these things, because she does. After all, she wanted to be captain. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get a bit overwhelming some days.

On one of those days, when Jax tells her to come to the engine room, Sara thinks she might snap because the last thing she needs now is the ship crashing on her. So she walks in fully expecting some kind of mechanical disaster.

What she finds instead is Jax standing over a motorcycle that looks like it’s had better days. She raises a brow and waits for him to explain. He grins and explains that Mick brought it in after their last mission in 1994 - probably thought it would last more than a run or two before it broke down on him. Jax continues to grin as he then holds up a book, _The Fundamentals of Motorcycle Repair_ , and announces that the two of them are going to fix it.

Sara stares at him for a moment, before she turns around and begins to leave. She only makes it a few steps before Jax runs in front of her and blocks her exit.

She tells him that she doesn’t have time for this. She needs to -

Pilot the ship? Gideon can take over for a bit, he tells her. And before she even tries to say it - Nate, Amaya, and Ray already agreed to look out for aberrations, and Grey even said he would keep an eye on Mick.

“It’s okay to take a break, Sara,” he tells her. “Take a moment to relax. Maybe pick up a new hobby?” He grins, holding up the book.

She looks at him for a moment before she rolls her eyes, but takes the book and grins.

 

 

She suspects that Firestorm might be one of the most powerful beings on their Earth. Which means that she knows that, more likely than not, Jax would be safe if something were to go wrong on one of their missions. Assuming, of course, that he’s able to merge with Stein and become Firestorm. But if he can’t? Jax is just a normal human with no extra abilities, which means he’s just as vulnerable as the rest of them. Probably more so because he has no training.

Which is exactly why Sara makes time to train him.

It doesn’t matter to a bullet how big, fast, or strong you are, she explains as she hands him a gun. Most of the people they fight can take a hit. Most of them will not be able to take a direct shot.

Despite never handling a gun before, Jax is a natural. His reflexes are fast, he’s able to control the kickback, and his aim is more accurate than an average beginner's. Not that it surprises her. It’s Jax, after all - she’s fairly certain that he could do just about anything he puts his mind to.

Point the gun at her, she tells him. She wants to show him how to disarm someone.

Jax’s eyes get wide all of a sudden and he talks a step back. He wants her to do _what_? No way! It’s a loaded gun - there’s _no way_ he’s pointing that at her.

She raises a brow, slightly surprised, but takes the gun out of Jax’s hand and removes the clip before handing it back to him. _There_ , she tells him. There’s no way he can hurt her now.

He presses his lips together and looks at the gun for a moment. He lifts it up, points it at her, and then immediately puts the gun back down on the table. He can’t do it.

“Jax.”

“I _can’t_ ,” he snaps. “It doesn’t matter that it’s disarmed - it’s a _gun_ , Sara. I can’t just point that at you, okay? I can’t!”

Sara immediately takes a step forward, closes the gap between them, and rests her hands on his arms. _It’s okay_ , she tells him. They’ll just use some kind of prop instead. This is about helping _him_ , okay? She won’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to. She promises.

He stares at her for a moment before he takes a breath. _Okay_ , he says. He believes her.

 

 

She thinks about that later. About how hard it was for Jax to point an _unloaded_ gun at her. Thinks _it probably means something_. About him. About what he thinks about her.

About them.

She thinks it probably means something she isn’t sure she can think about right now. Because right now there’s a Darhk and Merlyn and Thawne and Rip and time aberrations and being captain. There isn’t time to think about it. So she tells herself she can’t. Not right now.

_But…_

She thinks that maybe it’s something she will want to think about.

 

 

Sara and Jax.

Jax and Sara.

The two of them together - working together, laughing together, spending time together - isn’t anything new. Jax was one of the first people on the ship that Sara took a liking to. If she wasn’t training Kendra or babysitting Leonard and Mick, she was often with Jax. The two of them always seemed to have this habit of finding one another on the ship.

Still, something changes. Because it’s not just that they’re always finding each other - it’s that they never really seem to be apart.

The funny part is that Sara doesn’t even notice it at first. Because so much of her day, of her routine, involves being around Jax, so it just feels normal to always be around him. It isn’t until Ray creates his chore wheel and Sara realizes all of her assignments are with Jax.

Ray seems surprised when she mentions it. He just sort of assumed she would want to work with Jax, he explains. You know, on account of her always working with Jax on everything?

Sara isn’t sure which surprises her more - that Ray would notice the amount of time she spends with Jax, or how glad she is that he noticed enough to pair her and Jax together.

 

 

Sara finds Jax sitting outside her quarters the night after Christmas. He jumps up the moment she opens the door and, for a moment, she thinks he will try to play it off. She thinks he thinks it too because he opens his mouth to say something but stops before anything actually comes out. After a moment, he takes a breath.

Couldn’t sleep, he confesses. Tried, but every time his eyes closed -

It’s stupid, he says. She’s fine, he _knows_ she is.

_But._

His eyes are bloodshot, Sara realizes. Could be from the lack of sleep. Or the tears. Or both. His fists are clenched too and his arms are trembling. And for just a moment, when his eyes meet hers, he looks so old that it actually _hurts_.

He’s suffering with her. _Because_ of her. Because of how much she means to him.

And maybe the solution is to cut it at the root. Separate herself from him. Give him space from her to heal. Because if he doesn’t care about her then he won’t get hurt because of her pain. Won’t share her burden. Won’t feel her pain. And he can go back to grinning in that way that makes any room light up.

Except there’s no going back to before - there is only here and now, and they have to live with that.

But at least they don’t have to do it alone.

“Come on,” Sara says nodding towards her quarters. “If you’re going to watch over me all night, you can at least multitask and get some sleep while you’re at it.”

Jax looks at her through surprised eyes and for a moment, she wonders if he won’t do it. But after a beat, he nods slowly before he follows her in.

 

 

He comes over the next night.

And the night after that.

And the night after that.

And if it starts to become a pattern, Sara doesn’t say anything.

 

 

 _Fraternizing with teammates isn’t a good idea_ , Amaya tells Sara the moment she walks into the kitchen.

Sara raises a brow as she pours herself a cup of coffee. She tells Amaya _good morning_ to her too and even adds an _I slept well last night, how about you_?

Amaya raises her brow back at Sara and, for a second, Sara thinks she’s fighting back an amused grin. And then when Amaya says that she can tell Sara slept well last night based on how she’s wearing Jax’s jacket this morning, Sara realizes that Amaya is _definitely_ fighting back that grin.  

Sara shrugs and doesn’t even pretend to write it off. Doesn’t even think she could with Amaya. Not that she has anything to write off, because they’re not even doing anything scandalous in the first place. They’re just sleeping together. As in _literally_ just sleeping. In fact, it’s probably one of the least scandalous things Sara has ever done.

Yeah, Amaya still thinks it’s a bad idea.

 _But_ , she adds with a soft smile. Then she sees the way Jax looks at Sara and she thinks that maybe, just _maybe_ , it wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.

 

 

Sara always wakes up before Jax.

It isn’t that he wakes up particularly late, just that after everything she’s been through, Sara has gotten accustomed to waking up early. Which she kind of hates, because she used to be the queen of sleeping in. There were summers where her parents couldn’t make her leave her bed before noon. But all of that went away when the Gambit sank and her life changed.

Until now, that is. Because, as it turns out, Jax is a surprisingly light sleeper, which means any chance of him sleeping ends the moment she moves enough to get out of bed. The first few times she does it, he tries to brush it off and tells her that he was ready to get up, and spends the rest of the day yawning. And she knows the obvious solution is for Jax to go back to sleeping in his own bed, but Sara can’t quite find herself able to tell him that.

So she opts for Plan B instead - staying in bed until Jax wakes up.

That morning, she’s balancing a knife on her finger when she feels his side of the bed shift. When she turns towards him, he is lying on his stomach looking at her with this strange expression on his face. She raises a brow and asks him what’s up. He shakes his head and tries to tell her it’s nothing, which of course only makes Sara even more curious. He halfway makes an attempt to brush it off, and then sighs softly.

“It’s just - you’re my best friend. You know that, right?”

There’s something in the way he says it, with this look on his face, with all these emotions in his eyes, that makes her heart skip a beat all of a sudden. It’s the most ridiculous thing to get emotional over, she knows, but she doesn’t care because she thinks it might be the sweetest thing she’s heard in a long time. She thinks she shouldn’t be surprised by that, because it is Jax, but she is.

Then again, Jax has a tendency of surprising her in the sweetest ways.

“Yeah?” she asks. He nods. “You’re mine too, you know.”

Her fingers brush against his as she says it. He smiles and takes her hand in his before he leans forward and rests his forehead against hers. For a moment, she thinks that he might kiss her, but he doesn’t. And it would be so easy for her to lean forward, close the distance between them, and kiss him herself. But she doesn’t either.

Because it isn’t the right time yet. Because there’s still the Spear and the Legion and a million other things that need their focus right now. Because whatever this is that’s developing between them deserves more than to take the back seat to all of that.

Because maybe _they_ just need a little more time.

She thinks he knows that too.

But _still_.

“Stay here with me?” she asks.

“Always,” he says.

Because they have all the time in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> [Fanart](http://cyanidesylladex.tumblr.com/post/157614004845/anyway-i-love-this-fic-and-i-think-about-it-all) done by cyanidesylladex on tumblr.


End file.
